Meanwhile the 5th Brigade on the left had passed to the north of Vertain and swept forward, keeping level with the Nineteenth Division on their left. They co-operated in the capture of Escarmain, and the rest of the Second Division made its way through Capelle, and lined the Capelle-St. Martin Road, the latter village having been taken by the Nineteenth Division. So demoralised did the Germans appear on this flank, with their gun-teams all out in the open ready to limber up, that it appeared as if unlimited progress could be made by Haldane's Corps, but it was known that the enemy were in a sterner mood to the south and that the Fourth and Fifth Corps, though victorious, had no assurance of an easy advance. It was determined therefore to renew the battle next morning before daylight. [Sidenote: Oct. 24.] At that hour the Thirty-third and Twenty-first Divisions again went forward on the right, but the opposition in this quarter was still very stiff. Poix du Nord was captured by the Twenty-first {240} and some 3000 inhabitants were found cowering in the cellars. Englefontaine was at the same time attacked by the 100th Brigade of the Thirty-third Division, but the machine-guns were busy and it was some time before they could get a lodgment. The Twenty-first was at the same time held up on the road north of the village. About 4 P.M. the line moved forward again behind a fresh barrage, that refreshing shower which revives the exhausted infantry. The men of the 100th Brigade got half-way through Englefontaine and remained there at close grips with their tenacious adversaries, while the Twenty-first fought their way forward to the south-east of Ghissignies, where they were again pulled up. The resistance on this southern section of the Corps front was certainly very different from that experienced by Haldane's Corps in the left flank. Meanwhile the Fourth and Sixth Corps were waiting for the Fourth Army and the Fifth Corps to swing into line, but they made a short forward movement on October 24, the Third Division passing through Ruesnes, while the New Zealanders on their right kept pace with them. Both the Fifth Corps on the right and the Seventeenth Corps on the left were for the time rather behind the general line, so that a long defensive flank had to be formed by each of the Corps between them. The Sixty-first Division had come in on the right of the Seventeenth Corps, but it had at once run into a sharp attack which drove it for the time out of Vendegies-sur-Ecaillon. During this day some attempt was made by the Sixth Corps to push cavalry through, but every horse of two strong patrols of Oxfordshire Hussars was shot, so that it was impossible to persevere. {241}